TWO SPOILED PUPS!

TWO SPOILED PUPS!

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

I was watching our two spoiled pups this morning.  They melt my heart when I look at them.  Kissy Fairchild, our 1 year old Rottie, and Chadwick Elsworth, our mixed pup (a wonderful mixture he is!), who will be 5 years old on Skip's birthday.

They were laying on our king-size bed when I walked into the bedroom.  Both looked up at me when I came in to make the bed up.  Their eyes were sleepy looking, I hated to make them move so, I could make the bed.

I did what anybody would do with spoiled pups such as ours!  I went to the top of the bed to begin making it, ha!  Yes, I did!  I began fluffing the pillows out, and smoothing our sheets, bedcovers down to where those two spoiled pups were laying.  I thought to myself that I would go back later 'when they've moved', and finish making up the bed.  Now... I wonder how many people who really love their pups would do that?

I walked to where they lay, and hugged Kissy so gently, kissed him on top of his head... he stretched out.  I did the same with Chadwick Elsworth, he began stretching as well.  Before I left the bedroom I patted both on their rumps.  They are like children, so trusting, so loving.  No matter what...they love you.

Our pups can hear a wrapper, no matter if they are in the house or, outside.  We can open a wrapper on something, turn around and guess who's there?  Yes, Kissy and Chadwick.

I watched them this morning when they began eating their breakfast.  I laugh when I see them doing things ...they are like children. They do things that take alot of thinking... it's so interesting! 

For instance, they both do something that is totally hilarious!  They'll eat some of their breakfast and one will wander off... the other will wait for a moment and run, not walk, run to the other's bowl.... and grab some of the other's food!  The one who wandered off will come back... and wait for his opportunity.  Soon, it comes... he'll then, go to the other's bowl and do the same thing!  They think this stuff out!  I stand there and watch in amazement.

Kissy does something I've never seen another pup do.  We keep a bucket of fresh water both outside and on the inside.  The inside bucket of water sits on a rug beside the door that has their pet door installed on it.

Sometimes when I open that door... Kissy will come to it and simply push his pet door open... stick his head in the bucket of fresh water, and drink!  He does that every time, he never walks to the other side of the door to drink when it's open!  That also, amazes me!

We will make bowls of oatmeal for them, when we eat that for breakfast.  It doesn't have to be sweetened, or have butter or milk in it.  They love it plain.... but, they eat it only if we will get a spoon to feed it to them!  We can put those same oatmeal bowls on the floor for them to eat... it won't get eaten!

Kissy is a force to be reckoned with.  He is like an electrical wire, he is full of energy.  He is huge and energetic.  He loves to 'express himself'!  He hears the commercial on tv... he is ready to 'express himself'.  Skip taught him that when he was smaller.  To 'express himself', he will grab the nearest chewbone, run back and go around in circles while one of us puts our hand on his back, saying 'Kissy, express yourself!'  It's so funny to watch him dance around!

It's hard to just pet Kissy, he can't be still.  His huge body and weight feels like a person, when he accidently steps on our feet!  I have to make him sit just for a moment to 'give him sugar'.   That makes him so happy that he seems to have more energy! 

Chadwick is a very fast pup.  He loves to run circles in their fenced in yard... Kissy is right behind him.  You'd be surprised how such a large dog can move so fast!  I love watching Kissy's little ears fold back when he runs.

Chadwick will come to us and he will jump lightly up to kiss us.  His kiss is so gentle and soft.  He is completely opposite of Kissy.  One can hold and pet Chadwick easily. 

I look at both of our pups, my heart feels such love for them.  We sacrifice alot to be with them.  We don't like to go out at nights, and leave them alone.  We find ourselves hurrying to get back to them when we are gone long periods.  We love them very much.

We will bring little pieces of chicken, or beef when we eat out, back to them.

I was wondering how many people feel the same way about their pups?  I know that many, many people have pets in their homes now, also, travel with them like we do.  Hotels, motels will accept pets now, where once they wouldn't. 

I wonder if 'you' have spoiled pups, or pets?  I'd be interested in hearing about them!

Happy day to my readers!  Granny Gee

TINY SPARKLING POOL OF WATER... MEMORY FLASHBACK

TINY SPARKLING POOL OF WATER...  MEMORY FLASHBACK

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES


This morning I was washing 2 bowls, 2 cups, and utensils.  I put them in the other sink (double sinks) to sit for a moment after I rinsed them.  I dried them off with a fresh drying cloth, put them away.


I remember not long ago writing about when I helped my sister by rinsing the dishes she washed... then, sneaking them back into her water to be washed again. 


This morning is the first morning that I didn't put dishes in a dish drainer.  I decided that I am tired of having a dish drainer sitting out.  I will wash and dry every glass, plate, whatever we use... and just simply put them up in the cabinets. 


I think writing about drying the dishes sparked this 'new' idea of washing, drying and putting them away.  This morning as I did that... I kept flashing back to being that little girl again... how fun it was to play.  That was a happy few minutes with one of my sisters (my father's daughter)... truthfully, there weren't many of them.


I have a little problem now... do you know how it is to let your cabinets get in disarray?  Well, mine are like that... and no matter how neat I make them... after a period of time, they'll begin to look crowded again.  I need to rearrange them again, soon.


I was thinking how strange it was standing at the sink as I rinsed a silver long-handled teaspoon... the spoon held a little water in it.  For some reason I stood there and just looked into that water that sparkled from the overhead light.  In that tiny pool of water... I could 'see back into the past'... see me standing there at that sink, my sister beside me.


It was bright around us, our smiles and laughter just as bright as the light that surrounded us.  We had just begun bonding... we never knew each other before I came there (only a short time before this incident).


I can't see my stepmother until she began beating me in my back (I was 9 years old).  I wondered as I looked into that little pool of sparkling water in the spoon.... was she standing behind us and saw that 'her' daughter, my half-sister, was going to love me?  I wonder if she watched us hating to see us playing and laughing together?  Then... I wonder 'why?'


You know how it is to sometimes 'think back' for a moment when you do something that triggers a flashback into the past.  This morning was my morning for thinking back, when washing and drying dishes.


Oh... about those cabinets.  They need to be stretched bigger if you want to know my opinion.  Also, my opinion only....... I think some of the shelves need to have 'like a wine-
rack'.... you know the 'square holes'?  Well, instead of putting wine bottles in them ...put
cups into each hole.  In fact, a section of a cabinet shelf could be like this... made out of woven wire.  That space could sure hold alot of cups, even glasses... all laying on their sides as they are slid into each slot.  I think I would like that. 


Here's to wishing all my readers a very nice day!  Granny Gee

I WONDER WHY SHE DID THAT?

I WONDER WHY SHE DID THAT?

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

Yesterday, we came home and there was a SUV parked in 'our front yard'... right in our yard on the wet grass! I couldn't believe my eyes to see someone parked in our front yard. We have a circular driveway... and if one can't go through it when our vehicles are there........ simply just back out to the road... you can see both ways. No, I just couldn't imagine coming to yours or someone's house when it's raining, and park in your front yard on the wet grass.

I couldn't believe seeing that SUV sitting there, and it was raining. The ground was very soggy. It upset me seeing the vehicle there, and the very real possibility someone would be spinning to pull back out to the driveway. There was a woman at our door, she turned as I walked up. I asked her 'why, was she parked in our front yard?'

Anyway, it turned out she was looking for someone. She apologized that she parked there, that our driveway was blocked and she couldn't drive around. She left, and thankfully the SUV didn't leave spin marks in the grass.

I kept thinking that I wished I had been nicer to the lady, but, I'd been focused on her car parked in our wet yard. Oh well. Now... I hope that doesn't come back to 'bite me in the ass'.

You know how sometimes if you aren't at your best.... later you'll meet that same person and you have to look at them in their eyes? All I know to say is... "I'm sorry, that wasn't me, that way my twin sister, and she couldn't believe someone would park in someone's front yard, especially when it was raining!"

Truthfully, I feel bad that I didn't just talk to the lady instead of becoming irate with her. Even wishing I hadn't been irate doesn't change my question as to 'why' she parked on the wet grass. I can't imagine parking in someone's wet front yard. I wonder why she did that?

I wonder what would that woman would say and think of me 'if' I had came to her house, backed into her wet front yard and parked? No matter, I still feel bad for being irate with her! I wish we always had a second chance to do things over.

I wonder if you'd been as irate as I was? I'm interested in what your reaction would be? I will be looking for comments! :)))

YES, I DID THAT...

YES, I DID THAT...

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

I was watching from the window my son's grandfather dig two trenches to back his pickup into ... the trenches would make the back end of his truck sit lower to the ground. This was so he could put a ramp there, it'd be low enough for the cow to walk up to go inside the bed of the truck. There were wooden sides around the bed of the truck making a 'fence' to keep the cow inside.

We had cows, and a bull in the fence. They grazed in a field of grass, lots of trees were nearby. The rock quarry was yards from the fence... they could walk to the water's edge to drink.

He would be coming the next morning to get the cow to take it to the sale. I watched him leave. I was mad at him and a thought came to my mind. I was a very young girl, and .... sometimes, mischievious. Oh yes, an idea came to my mind... I knew what I was going to do. He'd know too, when he came the next morning.

I walked outside to the garage and opened the door, went inside and got a shovel. I walked to those two trenches, stood there wondering if I had the nerve. Yes, I must have the nerve because the next thing I knew I was shoveling dirt in one of those trenches, stopping to stomp the dirt tight. I kept doing this until... both trenches were full. They weren't trenches anymore... that was even ground!

I put the shovel up and went inside to wash my hands. The next morning he came sure enough. I saw his truck stop and he got out to walk over to where the trenches should have been. I saw him look toward the house, then, back to the ground. He went to his truck and took his shovel out and... began digging two trenches, so he could back into them.

When he finished, he backed into the trenches, loaded the cow into the truck, and left. I walked back out there, got the shovel and filled, and packed those trenches again. Even ground.

STRANGELY ENOUGH...

STRANGELY ENOUGH...

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

I went to bed last night thinking about something strange that occurred Thursday morning. I'd like to write about it in just a few words here. Who knows, someone may understand 'why' it happened.

I was in an establishment Thursday morning, along with several other women. We all heard something unusual at the glass door. I heard one woman say "It's a crow trying to get into the door!"

I looked toward the glass door, sure enough in front of the door there stood a big, black crow! He was pecking at the glass, and his wings were beating against the door. I couldn't believe my eyes. That crow meant to come in!

After trying to get in the door, the big crow gave up and walked away to join another big, black crow nearby on the sidewalk. I walked to the door and opened it to see what the crow would do. It never paid me any mind and went about his own business.

I think somewhere in the back of my mind... I thought if that big crow 'came for me'... then, it might be 'me'.... oh, never mind. I think we all are superstitious whether we want to admit it or not. I will say that I was glad that crow never looked at me!

That big, black crow and its actions became the main topic in our conversation. One woman wondered 'who was going to die next'. Another woman began to tell what happened 'years ago' whenever a crow did something similiar, and what her mother said would happen. Everyone had a superstitious tale to tell.

Myself... I kept my mouth shut. I felt some unease, I admit. :))) I did feel better though knowing when I opened that glass door to 'meet that crow head-on'......... that crow never paid me any mind. I did that to 'go ahead and get it over with'... 'just in case'.. that crow was looking for me! :))))))))

　

　

MY PATH TO THE BATHROOM AS A LITTLE GIRL

MY PATH TO THE BATHROOM AS A LITTLE GIRL...

I walked into the kitchen. I hated to go to the bathroom at Grandma and George's, but, of course I had no choice. At nighttime, it was scary to open that big, brown door to the back porch! I was a little girl in a new place, sometimes it was very scary.

I went to the door and pushed the little lock back to unlock it. I opened the door ever so easy so, as not to make 'anything notice me'! I was afraid... I turned the porch light on. I left that door opened to a crack... I waited as I peeped out....

I looked toward the screen door and saw that it was hooked. The back porch was screened in. There was wood stacked in a neat pile to my left. This was where George would put the wood when he chopped it. I was always fascinated watching George... he was blind but, he knew where he was going, he did everything from cooking, washing and trying to make the house clean. George was a good man.

I tried to help in my little girl way. My other cousins when they lived there would do just as I did. We were children, but, did the best we could. All of us children who came to stay, to leave, to come back to Grandma Alma and George's .. had to learn to survive. We all went through things children should never know. Grandma Alma and George did the very best they could do. She was paralyzed, he was blind.

I was a little girl learning to be afraid of all kinds of things since coming to Grandma Alma and George's. I saw things there I'd never seen, nor had been around. I couldn't understand why I didn't have my own home anymore. Everything I did here was scary and it seemed things wanted to get me!

Things would fall on me when I would open the cabinet doors to get a glass to get water with... brown bugs with legs! I would begin shaking all over and my chest felt so tight, I would feel faint. I would knock them off from me, while jumping up and down. I would begin crying, I was so afraid of those bugs. They would sometimes fall onto my head, and I would scream while bending over to knock them off my head.

The door to the back porch was beside that cabinet with the glass doors. Opening that door took alot of nerve... plus, 'having to go' to the bathroom ..I would have no choice. Picture a little girl, eyes wide with fear, peeping through the crack before fully opening the door. I peeped to make sure nothing was on the porch to get me!

I 'had to go', I stood there standing with my legs tight together. I had to go bad! The coast looked clear! All I had to do was to open the back door now, and go just alittle way and open the wooden door on my left to the bathroom.

I quietly opened the door, stood there very alert. I tiptoed just a short distance and I heard something! It was coming from above me, up on that dark, old wardrobe! Oh no!

I turned to run back into the door, before I could ... something big jumped almost on my head! I screamed and ran into the door, slamming, locking it behind me. I was crying.

I heard George and Grandma Alma wondering what was wrong with Faye. George told her he would go see, I could hear his feet shuffling.

"Faye, Faye", he called my name. "What's wrong, Faye?" He came into the kitchen holding onto the doorway he'd just entered. He was looking toward me, though he couldn't see.

"George, please help me!" I was crying in frustration because I had to go! "Please stand here so, I can go to the bathroom!" I told him something big tried to jump on me!

Grandma Alma's voice was behind him, she sat in her recliner in the next room. She wanted to know what was wrong. George told her he thought a big wharf rat had jumped from that wardrobe, and almost landed on Faye!

I saw George's kind face, even his sightless eyes ... begin to smile. He felt for me, and he told me to let him open that back door, for me to go to the bathroom. He said he'd stand there and protect me.

He opened the door, the porch light was still on... I leaned my head so, I could look past George.... I didn't see anything. "Go on to the bathroom, Faye".

I ran the short distance to the bathroom, opened the door, turned on the light and oh my God! There it was again!

I began screaming for George to help me! "George, it's there again!"

"What in the Sam hell is in there, Faye?" George was beginning to lose patience with me, and his voice was raising.

I was frozen in fear as I stared at that fat, pink thing with legs... it's little belly was the color of my skin. It was looking at me! It looked like a pink, fat grasshopper! "George, it's a kididdlehopper! It's going to jump on me, help me, George!"

"___dammit, Faye!" George hollered. He was ill at me now! "That damn thing's not going to hurt you!" George told me to tell him where it was, and to move out of his way. I told him and he leaned down, took his hand and waved it in the direction of that kididdlehopper!

That kididdlehopper jumped toward George! I screamed and jumped back, George jumped, and bumped his head on the bathroom sink. George was good and mad now! ___dammit! George was going to holler now!

I couldn't see where that kididdlehopper went! I became fascinated watching George! George amazed me... when he got mad. His voice could get so loud, and his eyes would seem to bulge out of his head. He was like a big loud clap of thunder! Yes, that George could get mad!

"George, I got to pee!" I said in a little voice. "I got to pee bad!" How George heard me as loud as he was hollering, I'll never know, but... he did! "Get in here and pee now!"

I carefully went in, watching for that kididdlehopper. I pulled my panties down and got up on that tobacca-stained commode. When I finished, I hopped off the commode right onto........................

You could hear me screaming for miles... as I scrambled to get out of that bathroom! George was thundering with his voice, I was running like lightening. It was indeed a storm in that bathroom!

I made it out of the bathroom, my little panties around my ankles! I tripped on them, naked butt in the air! I was down on the cement porch, I knew that wharf rat was there somewhere! I was jumping up to get back to the safety on the other side of that backdoor!

Cold chills were all over my body, I was shaking and felt sick. That pink kididdlehopper had been there on the floor looking up at me when I almost put my foot on it! I ran to my Grandma Alma and she held her good hand out to hug me. She held me to her chest, my grandma cared so much.

George came back into the sitting room (I named it the Arena). He sat down in his wooden chair with a caned bottom in it. He always sat beside Grandma Alma's recliner.

I heard George making a funny sound and looked over at him... his face had broken out into a big grin... I heard and saw laughter begin to come from him! George had a big Santa Claus belly... it began moving up and down, and George laughed so hard! He couldn't speak, though he tried. It was fun to see George's happy belly begin moving as he laughed.

My grandma looked at him, she too, began laughing! I stood up and looked at both of them... I couldn't believe they were laughing! I'd just been fighting for my life, survived two battles with a giant rat that tried to jump on me, and one of those dreaded kadiddlehoppers that scared me everytime I saw one!

Their laughter was contagious... I began to laugh. Just watching their faces with that happy expression on them made me want to laugh, too. I forgot about fighting for my life, and watched my grandma's and George's laughing faces! How I loved Grandma Alma and George, especially when they laughed. They didn't laugh all the time...

Note by this author: To this day I still have the heebie-jeebies when I see a pink kadiddlehopper! I just can't take it! I can feel so weak and I feel like I can hardly breathe... but, I take a stand. Either it's got to go... or I got to go! I wish I knew the real name of these grasshopper-like creatures... to me, they look like little people with pink, fat stomaches. You wouldn't believe the countless battles I've been in with these creatures through the years... I always dread to see one!

ANOTHER NOTE BY THIS AUTHOR:  MY FRIEND, BRETT, SENT ME A LINK TO TELL ME THE NAME OF THE 'KADIDDLEHOPPERS'........  THEY ARE CALLED 'KATYDIDS'.  JUST LOOK FOR THE ONE WITH THE FATTEST, PINK BELLY AND INTELLIGENT EYES!  THAT'S THE ONE!  BELOW IS THE LINK:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=African+flower+mantid&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=425l425l0l2278l1l1l0l0l0l0l89l89l1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=909&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=JNUuT9SBEKrc0QGnnZj3Cg#q=pink+katydid&um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=b55e1a54242e9b95&biw=1184&bih=594



　
　

　

　

　

MY MAMA'S ST. CHRISTOPHER'S NECKLACE, MY GRANDMA ALMA'S ENGAGEMENT RING...

MY MAMA'S ST. CHRISTOPHER NECKLACE, MY GRANDMA ALMA'S ENGAGEMENT RING...

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

At fifteen, I came back to live at my mother's house. I was glad to be with my own mama. She and my Aunt Ruby had come to save me! I was living in Roxboro, NC with my real father and stepmother, and 2 half-sisters.

They confronted my stepmother and told her I was leaving with them, if she tried to stop me they'd simply whip her ass! "Go get your things, Faye!" my mama told me. I was so afraid of my stepmother that I wasn't sure if I should... but, when I looked at my mama, my beautiful angry mother... I knew I didn't have anything to be afraid of.

My stepmother had better not hit me again! My Aunt Ruby was right beside my mama, and she looked just as angry! I 'knew' what they were capable of! They didn't take any junk off anybody!

My stepmother had beat me in the head and face with her bare hands, making blood go everywhere in that bathroom. Not only that, my real father came into the bathroom and looked at me with such anger and... hate in his eyes.. and drew his hand back and slapped me with all his might... it was the first and only time he ever hit me. The pain he inflicted on me.... reached into the depths of my very soul.

My stepmother loved that, as my father walked out of the bathroom she began slapping me in the face again, screaming at me. I was hurting so badly in my heart, the physical pain, and I could smell... all that blood! It was going to be a mess to clean up, didn't she know that! We kept everything so spotless!

I could see the blood making splats of red dots on the white porcelain sink, up on the sparkling clean mirror, on the white floor of the bathroom. In my shock and pain, I could see the mess it was making. The front of my blouse was... soaked in red blood! I couldn't believe 'how wet' my blood was! I touched it with my fingers... it was so red, so wet.

I tried to tell them that I didn't do that, I honestly didn't do what they accused me of! No one listened. They didn't want to believe I didn't do it... of course, my half-sisters would 'never do such a thing!'

My half sisters had told them I'd went into my father's bathroom to take his razor to shave my legs with it. I didn't do it, to this day I can honestly say... I really didn't do that. I never-ever would have thought of using his razor. I knew exactly 'who did it', but, I never told.

One of my half sisters used that razor, and I got into trouble for it. It wasn't the first time I got into trouble for them... I was the oldest, I felt protective toward them. Also... I wanted them to love me. It never worked, looking back... they were too much their mother's daughters... they never saw me as someone to love... they always saw a red flag instead.

When they looked at me, they saw anger.... they never saw past that to 'see me'. I was my father's first child... and here I was 'in their house!' How dare I be there.

I can understand... strangely enough I understood 'then'... I tried to always be quiet as possible, and help clean up, iron and rake leaves, make good grades in school, stay out of the way sitting in our bedroom. I would speak quietly, and smile. It didn't make any difference if I tried to be 'perfect'... all it did was to keep me in trouble.

I asked my stepmother for my mama's St. Christopher's sterling silver necklace, and my Grandma Alma's engagement ring. She had taken them from me one day when I was washing my hands. I'd taken Grandma Alma's ring off so, as to keep it from getting wet. It was laying on the sink.

My stepmother, came into the bathroom. "Gloria Faye, you are going to lose that ring!" Give me that ring and I will put it in the mosaic box where I keep things to make earrings one day for your sisters, she told me. She told me to give her my mama's necklace, also. I was afraid of her, and of course, I handed them to her. I didn't want to let her have them.

"Gloria Faye, you lost that ring and necklace, I don't have them!" My stepmother glared at me, daring me to say more. I felt fear as a young girl going up against her. I told her she had taken them to put in that box for my sisters, to please give them back. She said that I lost them.

Mama told me to come on, I wanted my treasures back, they meant the world to me. I had to go, forever never knowing what she did with my mama's sterling silver St. Christopher's necklace and my Grandma Alma's engagement ring! I never knew all these years. It still hurts me to my very soul.

To this day, I remember how my stepmother looked me right into my eyes, my face........ and lied. I remember how I never would have believed 'she' would have lied.

I hadn't yet 'opened my eyes to really see' .... that 'perfect, good people' can lie, and they aren't always as perfect and good... as one would think. I think maybe my eyes began to 'open' at that time... I was on the brink of 'seeing' people do things that..... no one else could believe they'd do.

I was just a young girl, I was still believing in right and wrong. Though my stepmother mistreated me, lied to me.... she was 'good, and she was perfect'. So, how could she have lied like that? I knew she mistreated me... but, I didn't know she..... lied, too. I can look back at how that bothered me.

I didn't think 'she would lie'.... she always made sure the house was beautiful, our clothes were starched and ironed perfectly, our hair and make-up just right, everything was 'perfect', even down to the wonderful meals that I couldn't eat because I couldn't swallow for being so nervous (I lost so much weight there).

So... even to this day.... I think about her lie.... and how she looked me straight into my eyes, daring me not to believe her. I'm even amazed... now. I sit here and 'see her face' at this very moment. That woman lied.... and that wasn't the only time.... she lied just before she died ...a lie that affected my whole life. I'm amazed.

That woman could lie. I've forgiven her.... Strangely enough, I still loved her. I just shake my head ...thinking of her. What a woman.

I know anything is possible... I wonder if it possible that my mama's St. Christopher necklace and my Grandma Alma's engagement ring could.... come back to me. If not, I would wish to know what happened to them...

　

POOR LITTLE DIRTY GIRL... YOU SMELL SO BAD!

POOR LITTLE DIRTY GIRL... YOU SMELL SO BAD!
BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

I was standing by the windows near the cloakroom at school. My face was burning, I was so embarassed. Nobody had ever told me that ....I held my head down, hot tears falling on the front of my dress. I wanted to sink into the floor.

Gloria, we aren't trying to hurt your feelings, we care and want to help you. One of the girls standing there was looking at me with pity... well maybe... it was compassion in her eyes ..now, that I look back.

I looked up into their faces ... Deborah, Mary Pat, Kathy, Betty, and several others. I was too embarassed to look anymore and hung my head down. Just let me get back to Grandma Alma and George's. I wanted 3:00 to come so, I could go home!

I'm too ashamed to tell them. I never knew, I never knew until these kind girls took it upon themselves to tell me. They were trying to help me. Grandma and George did the best they could, I knew no better than what I was told to do, how could I have known? 

Grandma, grandma! I was calling my grandma as I opened the screen door. I wanted to tell my grandma what those girls told me! Grandma Alma was sitting in her recliner, she had her head tilted to one side looking for me to come through the door to her sitting room (the Arena). She had a smile on her face. I loved my grandma with my very heart!

I ran to her, as I began to tell her what happened at school today, I began sobbing. I felt awful! I was so ashamed to be in the world. I felt too embarassed to tell my grandma what those girls did.

"Faye, what's wrong?" My grandma was looking at me with tears in her eyes, she knew something had hurt me deeply. I couldn't talk, I was crying my heart out.

I finally stopped crying, I took the hem of my dress and wiped my eyes, and my runny nose. My eyes burned, and I felt so sleepy now. I always felt sleepy after I cried, everytime I got a whipping I would cry my heart out, and I would crawl into bed and go to sleep. I could be at peace there.

My shoulders were jerking, and I was sniffling. My nose kept running. My dress hem was soaking wet with tears, and from wiping my nose.

Grandma, do I smell bad? I asked my Grandma did I stink? Grandma, some girls at school made me so embarassed today. They said they had a present to give me, to help me smell better. Oh, Grandma, I was so ashamed! I'm so ashamed I could just kill myself! I feel like nothing!

My Grandma Alma began to talk softly to me, she told me she could understand how I felt. She told me she was so sorry that they only had cold water at her house. There was only cold water in the bathtub, too. George had to heat my water each morning for me to bath, he couldn't bathe a little girl. No, he couldn't do that at all.

I was too little to heat my own water to take a bath with. At my home... at my home? Why couldn't I be back at my own home? I began to cry again... my mama was gone and I didn't know when she would come back to get me. My little brother, Wm Ernest was gone, also. I began to cry harder... my heart was broken.

I laid my head on the arm of my grandma's chair and weeped. Grandma was crying with me. We both cried together. She took her good hand and rubbed my head. I felt such love from my grandma.

I kept thinking about those girls and the present they gave me. There was a bottle of Jergen's lotion, and a bar of Dial soap, and a plastic bottle with Tussy deodorant, and a ... washcloth.

Grandma and George had washclothes. George was blind, he always had clean washclothes, I helped him to fold them. George did the laundry by himself, I tried to help him. How much can a little girl do?

I would tell him everytime he would walk toward something that he could bump into to hurt him. I loved George with my heart... except when he hollered so loudly. George could really holler... it'd make you jump!

That night I decided when I got up in the morning to get ready for school that I would wash myself very, very good and smell so nice. I never wanted anyone to think I smelled bad ... never again!

I kept thinking about how I didn't know that I didn't bathe good enough. No one ever told me. At my house, Wm Ernest and I always got into warm water in our bathtub, we got to play in the tub when we took our baths at nighttime.

My mama always made sure we were clean and had the softest towels to wrap up in. She would dry us off and put pajamas on us. I loved the clean smells at my home! I missed them!

My mama would tuck me into bed every night and she'd pull the cover up to my ears, she'd gently tuck the cover on each side of my ears to keep them warm. I loved my mama with my very heart. (As an adult when I lay dying... this vision of my mother tucking the covers around my ears to keep them warm... stayed in my mind when I was in the 'dark world'.. this vision comforted me.)

Where was my mama? Where was my little brother? When am I going home again? Our home was so clean, my clothes were so nice. No one ever said I smelled bad before!

This little girl didn't know... she had just begun one of many journeys in her life. She'd never know the security of 'family'... never again as a child. She'd just went to hell... she just didn't realize it ...yet. Life was going to get rough... she was going to have to learn to toughen up to ...survive.

This little girl never saw her brother, Wm Ernest... again until once when they were teenagers, only several times in adulthood. He'd been taken to Wisconsin to live with his father, the man I first knew as 'Daddy'. I never saw him again.

My little sister came into the world, and I only knew her for months.. she too, was taken from my world as a little girl. I lost the most important people of my little girl world. I can't begin to count the tears I cried as a little child.. my mama was gone... coming back from time to time...only to leave again.

My little precious brother was gone forever in my childhood, he had meant the world to me. My beautiful little blue-eyed baby sister was taken away at the same time I was taken away from Grandma Alma and George's to go live with my Grandmother Lola.

My little sister was taken to her new parents. I never forgot the kind voice of the lady who held my sister... she told me that I could see her again. It's strange how her voice traveled in my mind... always. It was so... kind. I think she cared with her heart.

I never saw my little sister after I was taken once again... to go live with my mama again. I never saw her until I was in my early fifties. How she touched my heart. She was by my side when we went to my Grandmother Lola's funeral.

I never see my brothers and sister, though I don't..... I love them all very much. They are 'my' brothers and sister. My father wasn't their father.

I can look back to the day the girls at school gave me the 'present'... they opened my eyes up to knowing a person needs to always smell clean.. I always bathed even with cold water, and I always smelled good. I really love my showers to this day... I love to smell so wonderfully clean! I love bubbles and warm water!

I think I will say 'thank-you' to those girls now. It was always hard to ever look them in the eye after that. I was moved so many times between grandmas and my mama's ... that I would see them only from time to time... I was changing schools constantly.

Do you know.. looking back? Even as a child, I never told on anyone... rarely did I complain about how I was treated. I think I was just 'playing ball' and learning the rules as I went. I don't think I knew that I could tell someone what was happening in my life... I accepted it and did the best I could.

People would say mean things to me as a child... looking back... couldn't they 'see', didn't they know what was going on? Didn't they even ...care? Couldn't they see that .... poor little dirty girl?

They did see and love the little clean girl, they could see me ...then. I was loved and the center of attention 'before'.... what in the world happened? I never knew until I was older... but, God... how I suffered.

Look at your babies and 'just imagine for a moment'.... you wouldn't let them be at the mercy of other people, and be little dirty girls, or boys. They are so little and so fragile, and ... precious.

I was a precious little girl at one time, but... at the age of nine... my fairytale ended. I became a stepdaughter, unwanted daughter, unwanted child. Where did my fairy godmother go? I became the child who was always on the outside looking in ...at what I used to know... a cosy, warm, and loving home, beautiful little dresses and lacey socks, warm meals, toys that were for me.

Someone used to make me good meals to eat, brush my long hair until it would shine, care for me... where did it all go? I couldn't find it anymore.... until I looked from a distance into your windows as I passed by... at your cosy, warm, loving life.

I'd become a poor little dirty girl... I was too little to know. Others saw what I had to learn... no one made anything easy for me. I had become ... nobody.

Now.. I look back at that child and wish to hug her, and make everything alright. It's okay now... she stayed dirty no longer after she knew. Life was hell for her... but, she went through it ... clean!

Another good thing this author would like to say... I'm very clean, it's been many, many years since I lived in hell, and now... I'm somebody... I'm a happily married person with two spoiled pups. It's been a very long time since I lived in hell. I live a very quiet and private life.

My Aunt Frankie used to tell me I could choose to not have bad things in my life. I'm a good 'somebody' ... and I'm so clean! :))) I'm smiling now.... I see I'm ready to go to bed now. Goodnight now... I sure have enjoyed talking to you. You all mean the world to me!

:))))))

REAL HAUNTED HOUSE

 

REAL HAUNTED HOUSE...
BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

 

"Yes, a real haunted house!" My cousin, Raymond, told me about a real haunted house. I didn't believe a house could be haunted!

We were young teenagers wanting something to make us feel a thrill. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. We were fifteen, Raymond was sixteen. He could drive.

Raymond and his girlfriend, his best friend and his girlfriend, were going to the haunted house that night. Raymond asked me if I'd like to come along.

Of course, I wanted to see a real haunted house. At the moment it was in the middle of the day... they were on the way to look at this house in the daylight. I wanted to go with them. "Come on, let's go!" Raymond invited me. I jumped in the back seat of his car, he took off!

I felt excitement, even just a little fear in my stomach. A 'real' haunted house! I've never been to a real haunted house! In fact, I'd never gotten to do much of anything in my teenage years. I wasn't allowed to do anything excepting go to school, and just live in hell everyday of my life. It seemed to me someone would have been glad to let me go do things, maybe never come back to be a bother to them.... you know, just disappear.

I wasn't even allowed to get a part-time job! All the other kids in my DE class were getting part-time jobs... excepting me. I felt anger that I couldn't. Looking back now... how sad that I wasn't allowed to begin growing into my own... I was too sheltered.... too sheltered in hell. Anything seemed like heaven when I was away.

I could have gotten into alot of trouble 'if' I'd known 'what to get into!' Looking back, I'm glad I didn't do that! That's not saying I was perfect. I was in trouble for a short time in my life when I was a little older, wrong people... wrong place... wrong time. I know how well something like that can happen. I was someone who never wanted to be in 'real' trouble. Young people can be led so easily, they believe in their idols, their peers and think they can do no wrong.

"Don't drive so fast!" I told Raymond to slow down, he was driving fast down that dirt road. We were somewhere in Wake Forest, North Carolina... only he knew where we were going.

Raymond slowed down and turned right onto a dirt path leading up to an old, old house. The boards looked dark grey, some of the windows were broken. It was overgrown with briars, and vines and trees. No one had lived here for a while.

We got out of the car and began to walk up to the house. The steps were broken and one couldn't walk up on them, the steps had rotted out. One could gingerly step up on the sides of them to make it up on the porch where....

The boards were mostly missing on that porch and I could see down through the holes. How in the world can one get into that front door without falling through to the ground, and God knows what else!

Raymond and his best friend held onto the doorway and managed to jump across the hole there. They began helping us girls by holding their hands out to us, saying they would help us inside. We got inside and began to explore the first floor.

We all began going our own ways, each finding something that interested us. I had never been in a house that was as old as this. It had a fireplace that fascinated me... it was beautiful to me! I saw an old book lying on the dusty floor. I picked it up to look inside to maybe... see a name? No, no name in this dusty old book.

I could hear the voices of Raymond, his best friend and his girlfriend. They were laughing and chattering away. I went to find them.

They were upstairs... one had to be so careful navigating those steps! They were dangerous, holes in them, the wood was thin in places from age.

I made it up the steps... finally. I walked to the window at the head of them. I looked out over the roof, to the window to my right... to see inside of the room there. I only saw bare walls and a dusty floor. It was empty.

I looked to my left.... feeling shock as I did! I couldn't believe my eyes... there was a rope with a noose on the end of it...hanging from the center of the ceiling. My knees felt weak and I felt afraid. I wanted to go away from here. I wondered if Raymond and the others saw this!

I walked to my left, looking for the door to that room with the noose..... there wasn't a door at all there in that hall that opened into that room! I couldn't understand that. I walked down the hall to the only doorway on the left... that was at the front of the house, it was a dusty room with bare walls. Raymond and his friends were in here.

"Did you see the noose hanging from the ceiling?" Raymond asked me what noose? His eyes showed just a little fear when I asked him. He was brave, but... Raymond could scare easily! I felt more fear when I saw Raymond's eyes, he could be scared easily but, not as easily as I could be.

"Come on, I'll show you! I can't find the door to that room!" I walked into the hall. I took my hand and touched the wall as we walked back to the big window in front of the stairs leading back down. I bumped the wall, I told Raymond that I couldn't understand where the door would be to the room I knew was behind there!

We all walked to the window at the back of the house, in front of the staircase that led down.... I pointed to the room to the left. No one could believe what they saw.... a bare room with dust on the floor, and a rope noose hanging from the ceiling. Immediately, the guys turned to look down the hall, puzzled to where a door would be. There wasn't a door.

We grew tired of wondering and made our way back down those rotten, old steps. We let the guys go first out the front door, they reached to help us girls to get back onto the porch. Thankfully, no one fell in that hole there... it was about four feet down if one fell into it.

We piled up in Raymond's car and drove slowly away. All of us were looking up at that old house.. we were on the left side of it where the room was with that rope noose. We could see windows up there.... I was wondering 'where was the door to that room with the noose?'

Raymond said we'd all go that night back to that haunted house. Didn't that rope noose prove that it was haunted? It was strange to see a noose hanging from the ceiling like that. Yes, we all knew 'we had to go back' that night! People are braver when in numbers.

That evening as it was getting dark, we drove down the dirt road toward the haunted house. I was feeling afraid, I was having second thoughts. The guys were talking brave-talk... how they weren't afraid of nothing.

The moonlight was beautiful, I was so glad that the moon was out. I'm afraid of the dark... I know 'bad' things can happen in the dark. I know.

Raymond slowed down on the side of the road instead of driving into the driveway. I was so glad he wasn't driving up to that haunted house! I was feeling nervous, my hands felt shaky, my heart was pounding. I think I wanted to go now... I might see something I don't want to see!

He stopped, everyone opened their windows. We sat there, nothing happened, we began to relax. We were laughing and talking when........................

"Did you see that?!!!" I froze, because Raymond's voice sounded strange, I felt cold chills on my bare arms. Raymond was pointing at something, his eyes were wide and his mouth.. was hanging open!

I looked up at the window where the room had the rope noose hanging from the ceiling, the room with no door to it. I saw.... in that window a little blue light the color of blue one sees on a highway trooper's car! It was hovering in the dark window! I was cold with fear, I wanted to go!

"Let's go, let's go", I said. No, Raymond said let's wait just a minute to see what happens!

In the moonlight, I watched what appeared to be a black sillouette of a man in a top hat coming out of that front door. I knew he was going to fall! In the moonlight I could see this man walk smoothly across that front porch and as he began to step down .....

The sound of tires spinning, my body being thrown back against the seat, and hysterical laughing.... I heard Raymond say "I'm getting the hell outta here!"

We all began comparing what we saw with our eyes, we all saw the same thing. We all asked the question "how did that man walk across the porch like that?!!!"

We all saw the man stepping down to ......... steps that weren't there! It was real, it was a real haunted house.

I never went back there, I think Raymond did. I don't think they ever saw anything else that was strange.

I know I saw enough to keep me away.... I don't like haunted houses at all. Especially... dark, haunted houses. Why I don't even go to the fun Halloween haunted houses... do you know 'why'?

Because I know 'bad things happen in the dark'... I know. I'm afraid of the dark.

REMEMBERING OUR PETS FROM THE PAST...

REMEMBERING OUR PETS FROM THE PAST...

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES

We had a family of Bassett Hounds who have since died, leaving a sadness in our hearts. They lived many years, they lived a good life. We made sure of that.

There was Garraway, my red-headed Bassett Hound. He was tri-colored. He was mostly red-brown, white and some black on his back. Garraway was very intelligent... we nicknamed him 'The Professor'... sometimes 'China man'. Garraway had several nicknames. He was called 'Red', and 'GG'. He was the father Bassett Hound.

Ms Sadie Maye was black and white. She was beautiful, she had beautiful eyelashes. She was soft as cotton. She was the 'boss', and ruled the house. She had one litter of puppies, she and Garraway. I found homes for each one, instead of selling them. All I asked for was a good family, a good home.

When she had her puppies, I saw one lying on the floor still in the thin membrane-like sac. I picked it up and gently pulled it off the baby puppy... this was the puppy I kept. His name became Chadwick Elsworth (our Chadwick today is named for him).

Chadwick Elsworth was nicknamed Baby Bird... he loved to move the covers around to make his nest. He had eyelashes like his mother. Soft, beautiful Chadwick was red and white.

All three Bassett Hounds lived a long, good life. They all three raised a Rottweiler puppy, Kissy. This was our first 'Kissy'.... today our Rottweiler is named after this special dog, as well as Fairchild, the Rottweiler we got when Kissy I died. We loved our pups, they loved us.

We got a snow that was 28 inches deep one winter. Skip and I always looked forward to snow, though it doesn't snow here alot in the winters. This was a real snow!

We let the pups go outside... it was so funny to watch the Bassett Hounds hopping like rabbits in the snow! Garraway ran after me, barking like 'this is your fault my belly's cold!' I was laughing so hard that I fell down backwards into the snow. He was really telling me off!

We did shovel paths for them to run on. Bassett Hounds and their short little legs could only hop in snow that deep... it was fun to watch. Kissy, of course, had long legs so, the snow never bothered him. He loved it, too!

Ms Sadie Maye died laying on the bed where I'd been laying, so sick. I'd almost died in that same place from my illness. My Sadie Maye died quietly there, instead. It was late at night, Garraway and Chadwick were crying softly 'looking up in the air'... it was so strange. They were seeing something we couldn't see.

When Sadie Maye died, it was during the time I was fighting my battle to live. I won't forget hurting so much knowing she died. She, along with Garraway, Chadwick and Kissy, had laid around me as I lay seriously ill. I was freezing cold in July... I wonder if they were aware of that... I could feel them, more than see them.. laying around me close... maybe trying to keep my body warm.

I know now, there are so many people who care about their pets. Their pets become part of the family. That's the way we've always been. Each time one died to go to Rainbow Bridge, we grieved just as if each pet had been a person. They each held a special place in our lives, and meant the world to us.

Remembering them at this moment... how well I knew each one of them, loved each one of them. How loved each one of them was. They knew it. Do you know when I wrote about all the people I loved who died, how it could fill a sheet of notebook paper, in the past 12 years? Well, I didn't mention that these special dogs died during that time, too. The pain was so much for them, too.

I wanted to write this to remember our pups from the past... they were our family, too. I love you, Garraway... Ms Sadie Maye... Chadwick Elsworth, Kissy, and Fairchild. Each of you lead a long life in our care. This is written in honor of you.